The words hit me like a physical blow. Around the table, Karen’s family chuckled uncomfortably. David actually laughed, shaking his head like it was the cutest thing he’d ever heard. Jessica smirked behind her wine glass.

For a moment, I just sat there processing what had just happened. My own granddaughter, coached by her mother, had called me a burden at a public dinner in front of extended family, and my son found it amusing.

I stood up slowly, placing my napkin on the table with deliberate care.

“Well,” I said, my voice steady despite the trembling in my chest. “I suppose I won’t burden anyone with my presence any longer.”

“Mom, she’s just being silly,” David said.

But he was still grinning, still finding it funny that his 8-year-old daughter had been taught to insult her grandmother.